The Definition of Nickel and Diming people to death.

I woke up this morning to find the big news of the day is Obama’s continued expansion of the federal government this time into the Christmas tree industry (by the invitation of small business agriculture). That is right Obama (Federal Government under Obama's watch) has decided to declare war on Christians, manufactures of reusable Christmas trees and has singled out a special tax for those who like to buy live Christmas tree, added burden to Christmas tree vendors everywhere and caused a black market to make law abiding citizens criminals. Whatever happened to the separation of church as state, how soon until Christmas trees become holiday trees?

Ok I’m sure you are saying, come on Robert you are being extreme. I am being extreme, because that is the only way that you will listen. I decided to look into what the tax will be used for, not that the government ever uses our funds well, but maybe it is going to be for lowering our debt. Nope! It is going to be used to fund a new arm of the government whose purpose is to promote the sale of live Christmas (holiday) trees!

Now if I am going to go buy a Christmas tree, than why do I need to be advertised to? Do they think I’ll buy two Christmas trees? I’m already buying a tree! Now I’m going to have to pay more! A LOT MORE!

Now you say 15 cents isn’t much. Well the Christmas tree sellers are now going to have to hire an accountant who will have to file additional taxes. Accountants cost money! Do you think the low margin Christmas tree vendor is going to eat that cost? No he will pass it on to the consumer, raising the cost of Christmas trees!
So now the Federal government has created additional tax payer expenses to promote something they are already buying, but will not have to do so at a higher cost to cover the cost of the government expenses!

Now let us assume the Feds do a great job advertising these Christmas trees as they do with any program. Well there is a little thing called supply and demand. Christmas trees take years (5-15) to grow. So the supply is going to be very flat for the next 15 years. If more people want to buy Christmas tree because of the great job the Feds are doing at advertising for the Christmas tree vendors. Guess what happens to the price of Christmas trees? The price will go up.
What happens when the price goes up? The poor will not be able to afford the Christmas trees. The federal government will then need to subsidies the purchasing of live Christmas trees for the poor.

What else will happen? The thriving fake Christmas tree market will be hurt, causing the loss of jobs or at least a reduction in pay and expansion, which in turn cost jobs. So we will not be paying a tax that raises the cost of Christmas trees and chokes job creation.

Now some, formerly law abiding citizens, who sell Christmas trees, may not be able to handle the rising cost of selling the trees and go out of business or start selling them illegally to avoid paying an accountant to pay the taxes. This person was a surviving (not thriving) entrepreneur and the government has made his job harder! So this tax will inevitably cause some of them to start selling trees out of their “trunk” or go out of business.

Now some, formerly law abiding citizens, who recognize this intrusive maneuver by the Federal government into business that they have no business being in will start to cut down their own trees, likely from neighbors, federal and state forest and farms, some with and some without permission, a modern day Bostonian who will dump his beloved Tea into the bay to make a point.

Finally Christmas is a Christian holiday, named so after our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. While other religions may buy tree during this time of year to fit in with the culture, those truly buying Christmas trees are Christians. So this is a tax against a specific religion. The only way to get around this is to change the name of Christmas trees to holiday trees, thus adding fuel to the fire in the fight against Christmas.

A nickle is 5 cents and a dime is 10, when you put them together you get 15. The amount of tax the Federal Government will now tax you to sell you something you already buy. This is the true definition of Nickle and Diming someone to death.

The Reason for Tax Hikes in 2012 Budget

We need to raise taxes, that is right, I said it, but on everyone, not just the Rich. The main thing the need to go up on is businesses who are receiving unfair tax credits through pork project and behind door deals. These are typically called tax loop holes, they typically go to the wealthiest businesses with the most lobbyist.

The second reason we need to raise taxes is because we got ourselves into this mess, and so we need to get ourselves out of it. We owe much of this money to ourselves. It is time we start paying the piper.

We also need to lower spending significantly, bring out troops home, and provide stability for businesses. If you are in your mid 20’s you know that if we keep going the way we are going we won’t be able to use Social Security, because it won’t exist. If you think it is worth saving, lower our future financial problems now so that we as a society can prepare for it. We need to slowly up the retirement age by a few years, starting in 20 years adding 1 year to the retirement age and adding a year to that age every 10 years until we are in a stable financial condition. I know that this isn’t part of the “budget” but since we borrowed from this fund we will now have to pay it back. Guess who borrowed from it? Not my generation! Guess who is going to pay for it? ME!

We need to reform our entitlement programs to encourage getting off those programs, and make them shameful to be on.

Private sector businesses need to start competing with government programs and showing that is it possible to have capitalism work and we don’t need the government interfering with our lives.